Researchers Try to Preserve Indian Languages

Robert Rankin, a retired Kansas University linguistics professor, is compiling a dictionary and grammar of the Kansa, or Kaw, Indians. With the help of a one-year, $40,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rankin is hustling to finish his Kaw dictionary and grammar manual. “I have about 4,500 entries in the dictionary now,” Rankin said. “I have another 1,000 to 1,500 to get to.”